Maybe it was the cold weather. Maybe it was the disparate list of comics on the bill. Maybe it was a host (Fatiha El-Ghorri) who said that she might be a bit rusty this soon into the new year. But whatever it was, the gala preview for the Leicester Comedy Festival, which runs next month, didn’t quite fire on all cylinders.
But let’s start with the positives. Hull standup Louise Atkinson (LCF’s comedian of the year in 2025) bossed it in her 10-minute slot, opening with a gag that was a callback to something El-Ghorri had said, and even improving on it. Confident and lively, she got the audience onside with a local reference, telling us she was last in the De Montfort Hall at her college graduation: “I went to the proper one, not the colouring-in one,” she said, referring to the two universities in the city.
Also racking up the laughs was James Ellis, whose gentle comedy is about the mundanities of life; he talked about lucking out with meeting his wife, making the right decisions about when to wear a coat and being lazy. Referring to the fad for “new year, new me” Ellis revealed he was 30 per cent fat. “That’s 5 per cent more than salad cream. I’m borderline Hollandaise.”
Long-form sketch comedy and clowning shows rarely sing when seen in truncated form – how to pick out 10-15 minutes from an hour-long show that makes narrative sense? – and clown Lil Wenker was hampered by that.
But threesome Bad Clowns had fun in their slot with a mad caper about searching for the rightful heir to the medieval throne of England. It overran, but Christian Dart, Sam Walls and John Bond performed with such glee - and some decent one-liners – that they pulled it off.
Also appearing were Hasan Al-Habib, Micky Overman and Luke McQueen, while Toussaint Douglass, who deservedly got a newcomer nod at the 2025 Edinburgh Comedy Awards, closed proceedings with a section of his oddball and very funny Fringe show, Accessible Pigeon Material. He’s performing work in progress of a new show, Purple Drizzle, at the festival and it's worth catching.
Some misfires aside, it was good to start the ball rolling for the 2026 Leicester Comedy Festival, and among those I recommend are Chloe Petts, Eric Rushton and Chris McCausland.
